Headed by a Snake

Humans had taken over this Realm.

Naught more than a disease... a blight.

Multiplying...

Breeding... out of control... a gods-damned infestation of tiny creatures-- all acting as one.

They reminded Revek Rexeris of... the insects... parasites borne of an infected wound... causing fever... sickness...

Tiny... insignificant things... capable of weakening the wings of the strong... and binding them to walk the earth.

Humans... they were filthy creatures that tamed the lands out of laziness... domesticating animals to grow fat off their meat... using alchemy to drink poisons for pleasure.

Consuming all... until each were fat, weak mockeries of their ancestors.

And humans... were responsible for his downfall...

​ Him.

Revek Rexeris.

For years... epochs... centuries...

He would kill.

He would sleep.

Then he would wake, again.

...His terrible breath would burn thousands of their kin. They would die, some instantly, far more... twitching... struggling-- desperately clinging to lives they did not deserve.

However...

For every single, scaleless, pile of flesh he burnt to ash... ten more would take their place.

No matter how many he killed... no matter how many villages and settlements... thousands upon thousands dead... weeping... praying to their whelpling gods...

Where one or twenty knew fear...

...a thousand... knew none.

Ten thousand-- they would attack en masse... lay siege to his domicile... seeking his gold... his jewels... everything he held dear...

A hundred thousand...

...And they refused to believe that he existed.

They built... more than villages. Cities, they called them-- Kingdoms... as if they deserved such titles. Try as they might... nothing built by the human lords held a wisp of flame to the Dragon Kings in his distant memory...

Then... they came... in numbers impossible to count... carrying with them, weapons of war.

...and not only for him... but his mate, Ran Ravell.

They sailed... great, wooden ships... so heavy, their hulls were half sunken in the sea. And from them... they fired metal spheres... hundreds and thousands... riddling his body with holes... boring into his flesh...

They launched great nets made of metal chains... they bound his wings and brought him crashing to the earth... and he laid there... helpless... waiting to die.

Swords and lances of great and powerful magics... they fell upon him. They dug underneath his ruby scales... ten thousand painful cuts... ten thousand fountains of life essence spilling upon the dirt.

Then... the hammers...

Pounding.

Pounding...

Every part of his body remembered pain.

Only pain.

He still heard the echoes of that battle... a cry, not so different from the harsh whine that constantly filled his mind...

It was her voice... screaming his name.

How she pleaded. How she begged...

Yet he... could not answer her call...

Her ghost... she haunted him, still.

Dead... gone... with but one question yet unanswered...

Why?

⊰ Why, Revek Rexeris... are you not surrounded by great piles of gold and treasure? ⊱

The miserable dragon looked about his cave... at the dust and debris... of worthless trash.

"I tried... I... tried so hard..." He whispered, his voice raspy... echoing in the darkness...

The coins he gathered... they all turned to stone.

The jewels... pale... colorless... turning into... black coal.

The great fabrics and... tapestries... and fineries that Ran Ravell always enjoyed...

Frayed.

Picked apart by ravenous insects. By the cruelty of time.

Rotten.

Everything on his island was shrouded in death...

Even him.

Dead. But refusing to rest.

⊰ Why, Revek Rexeris... do you not seek vengeance? ⊱

"Because... I..." His voice cracked in pain... in old age... in regret... "am afraid..."

It... hurt... so much to say those words...

Not just this time... but every time he remembered his past failures... how his greatest achievements were centuries past... how everything he'd ever loved... was taken from him in a single sun.

⊰ You fear... a human, my love? ...A single man, no less? ⊱

Revek Rexeris exhaled... green... rancid smoke wafting from his skeletal jaws... He no longer needed to breathe... but he... had been dragon for so long, he did not know how to stop.

"Yes, my love. I fear one... and so I must fear them all..."

He remembered that man's eyes.

That impossible man.

His name... Guillaume De la Croix...

Fleet Admiral of the Magic Kingdom's Royal Navy.

By his hand... a creature of the depths... it rose from the sea.

Greater than any dragon.

Unflinching against Ran Ravell's flames.

Its dozens of black appendages... they grabbed her legs... splayed them apart...

Her powerful claws... were dull against its hide. Her teeth... shattered like glass...

Her mana... now matter how easily it flowed through her blood... that creature... tore her wings off of her body, one by one.

Like a whelpling would chew the wings off an insect.

'Flee, my love,' She so desperately. 'By the dragon god above... one of us must escape! One of us must survive. The dragons-- they must return to this Realm.'

Those were her last words... when she yet lived.

For the Leviathan... under that human's command... its white-toothed maw engulfed her beautiful neck... and crunched through scale and bone.

He could not prevail against such a great and powerful foe... not when the fates had so conspired against him.

Yet still... he tried.

He prayed to the heavens... for just... a little more strength... strength undeserved.

And the Dragon God answered.

He slew many in his rage.

But not enough.

Guillaume... though injured... he lived.

The humans... they were too strong. Their weapons of war... the creatures they commanded... too great.

Even for a dragon.

Revek Rexeris could not achieve vengeance, even if he bartered his own life.

And so... he fled... away from the so-called Magic Kingdom... to an isle off the coast of the eastern shores.

Yet... the curse of the Leviathan... was not so easily ignored.

He died there... curled up into his tail... alone.

Yet still... he woke. Still, he walked the Realm.

He watched as his scales peeled and fell in great swaths... His skin... tightened... and cracked... desiccating into a thin pelt of shriveled leather. He felt millions of creatures... biting his flesh as it died and fell to rot...

And what remained... was... dragon, no longer.